Mohamedou Ould Slahi
| place_of_birth = Rosso, Mauritania | date_of_death = | place_of_death = | detained_at = Jordan Bagram Guantánamo | id_number = 760 | group = | alias = Mohammedou Ould Salahi, alias: Abu Musab | charge = | penalty = | status = Detained under AUMF-AT as a "part of" al Qaeda. Writ of habeas corpus granted his release on March 22, 2010. Remanded to the District Court on November 5, 2010. | occupation = Electrical Engineer | spouse = | parents = | children = }} Mohamedou Ould Slahi or Salahi ( ) (December 20, 1970) is a Mauritanian who has been detained at Guantánamo Bay detention camp since August 4, 2002. He is being held under the authority of AUMF alleged by the US government to be "part of" al Qaeda at the time of his arrest but he won his habeas corpus case and Judge Robertson concluded that: "his association with al-Qaeda ended after 1992, and, even though he remained in contact thereafter with people he knew to be al-Qaeda members, he did nothing for al-Qaeda after that time."http://www.fff.org/comment/com1009i.asp (p. 3) Slahi traveled to Afghanistan in December 1990 “to support the mujahideen”.Salahi v. Obama, No. 10-5087, slip op. (D.C. Cir. Nov. 5, 2010). (p. 4) He trained in an al Qaeda camp and swore bayat to al Qaeda in March 1991. Slahi returned to Germany soon after and then traveled to Afghanistan again for three months in early 1992. Slahi alleges that he "severed all ties with ... al-Qaeda" at that time. The U.S. government maintains that Slahi "recruited for al-Qaeda and provided it with other support" since then. (p. 5) Slahi was detained in Mauritania on November 20, 2001 and questioned for seven days by Mauritanian officers and by the FBI. Then the CIA rendered him to Jordan for eight months where he claims that he was tortured. After being flown to Afghanistan and held for two weeks, Slahi was transferred to the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba on August 4, 2002. Slahi faces no criminal charges. Lt. Col Stuart Couch refused to prosecute Slahi in a Military Commission after concluding that in 2003, "Slahi's incriminating statements -- the core of the government's case -- had been taken through torture, rendering them inadmissible under U.S. and international law." mirror Slahi could be one of the 47 Guantánamo detainees the Obama administration plans to hold indefinitely without charge or trial. Slahi challenged the lawfulness of his detention and Judge James Robertson granted a writ of habeas corpus, ordering Slahi to be released on March 22, 2010. In his unclassified opinion, Judge Robertson wrote: "Associations alone are not enough, of course, to make detention lawful."Salahi v. Obama, No. 05-CV-0569, slip op. (D.D.C. April 9, 2010) mirror. (p. 29) The Department of Justice appealed the decision, which was heard on September 17, 2010. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the ruling and remanded the case to the District Court on November 5, 2010 for further factual findings. (p. 16) Germany Slahi moved from Mauritania to Germany in 1988 to enroll in language and university preparatory classes before enrolling at the Comprehensive University of Duisburg. In December 1990, Slahi went to Afghanistan to support the mujahideen against the communist central government. He trained for six weeks at al-Farouq, an al Qaeda-run training camp near Khost. At the end of his training in March 1991, he swore bayat to al Qaeda and was given the kunya "Abu Musab." He then returned to Germany to continue his studies. In January 1992, he again traveled to Afghanistan to fight in support the mujahideen. He was assigned to a mortar battery in Gardez. In March, the Mohammad Najibullah regime fell and Slahi returned to Germany. (p. 12) In hearings in Guantanamo, Slahi has stated that he did travel to Afghanistan twice, attended the al Farouq training camp in 1990 and fought against the Afghan central government in 1992, but that those actions do not make him an enemy combatant against the United States. (pp. 2–4) (pp. 4–6) Slahi graduated from the university (renamed Gerhard Mercator University in 1994) with a degree in electrical engineering in 1995. He began seeking an unlimited visa and work permit to remain in Germany and as well as landed immigrant status in Canada during 1996. (p. 12) Slahi obtained landed immigrant status in Canada in September 1998. Slahi's cousin and former brother-in-law is Mahfouz Ould al-Walid, also known as Abu Hafs al-Mauritania. Al-Walid is alleged to be one of the spiritual advisers to Osama bin Laden and a high-ranking leader of al Qaeda. (p. 21) While al-Walid was in the Sudan, he asked Slahi to help him get money to his family in Mauritania twice, about $4,000 in December 1997 and again $4,000 in December 1998. About this, the District Court stated: "the government relies on nothing but Salahi's uncorroborated, coerced statements to conclude that the money transfers were done on behalf of and in support of al-Qaida." (p. 26) In 1998, Slahi was heard by U.S. intelligence talking to al-Walid on a satellite phone traced to bin Laden. mirror (p. 12) The 9/11 Commission Report stated that in 1999, Slahi advised three members of the Hamburg Cell to travel to Afghanistan to obtain training before waging jihad in Chechnya. However, the habeas court found only that Slahi "provided lodging for three men for one night at his home in Germany November 1999, that one of them was Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and that there was discussion of jihad and Afghanistan." (p. 19) Canada Slahi moved to Montreal, Canada on November 26, 1999 because German immigration wouldn't prolong his visa. Since he was a hafidh, he was asked to lead Ramadan prayers for a large Muslim mosque by its Imam. mirror (p. 14) Ahmed Ressam, who was caught with explosives crossing the Canadian border in December 1999 as part of the 2000 Millennium Plot, was also a member of the same mosque. Since Slahi's name was known to U.S. intelligence, he became suspected of activating Ressam. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) put Slahi under surveillance for several weeks but lacked any grounds to arrest him. According to a classified report of German intelligence, "there is not only no evidence of any involvement by Ould Slahi in the planning and preparation of the attacks, but also no indication that Ressam and Ould Slahi knew each other." Slahi left Canada to return to Mauritania on January 21, 2000. Mauritania 2000-2001 During his trip home, Slahi was arrested in Senegal at the request of American authorities and questioned about the Millennium plot. He was then transferred to Mauritania to be interrogated by local authorities and FBI agents. After three weeks in custody, during which Slahi was accused of being involved in the Millennium Plot, he was released. Slahi worked at various companies in Mauritania as an electrical engineer from May 2000 until the end of September 2001. On September 29, he was again detained by the Mauritanian authorities for questioning. He cooperated with the authorities several times though November 2001. The last time he went in for questioning was November 20, 2001. He was interrogated by both Mauritanian officials and the FBI for seven days, and then extraordinarily rendered to Jordan. An Amnesty International report describes his rendition and treatment there. On July 19, 2002, Slahi was transferred to the detention facility in Bagram, Afghanistan and then flown to Guantanamo Bay detention camp on August 4, 2002. Guantánamo Slahi was assigned detainee ID number 760 and was initially held in Camp Delta. In September 2003, he was moved to Camp Echo. Memos summarizing meetings held on October 9, 2003 and February 2, 2004 between General Geoffrey Miller and Vincent Cassard of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) acknowledged that camp authorities were not permitting the ICRC to have access to Slahi, due to "military necessity." Canadian security officials interviewed Slahi in February 2003. mirror Lt. Col V. Stuart Couch, a Marine Corps lawyer appointed as Slahi's prosecutor, withdrew from the case in May 2004. Couch believed that Slahi "had blood on his hands", but stated that he "could no longer continue the case in good conscience" because of the alleged torture which tainted all confessions Slahi had made. The Wall Street Journal published a letter Slahi wrote to his lawyers on November 9, 2006. In the letter, Slahi claims that all the confessions of crimes were the result of torture. He also laughed at being asked to recount "everything" that he had said during interrogations, joking that it was "like asking Charlie Sheen how many women he dated".Slahi, Mohamedou. Letter to his attorneys, November 9, 2006 Slahi, along with Tariq al-Sawah, "have become two of the most significant informants ever to be held at Guantanamo. Today, they are housed in a little fenced-in compound at the military prison, where they live a life of relative privilege -- gardening, writing and painting -- separated from other detainees in a cocoon designed to reward and protect." Before submitting briefs in the habeas case, the U.S. government dropped all allegations that Slahi had participated in the Millennium Plot and that he knew about the September 11th attacks before they happened. Allegations of torture According to the Wall Street Journal, Slahi had his last Federal Bureau of Investigation interrogation on May 22, 2003. His FBI interrogator warned him "this was our last session; he told me that I was not going to enjoy the time to come.". The interrogation techniques used on Slahi now started to include isolation, temperature extremes, beatings and sexual humiliation. Schmidt-Furlow Report The Wall Street Journal paraphrases an incident described in the Schmidt-Furlow Report: :On July 17, 2003, a masked interrogator told Mr. Slahi he had dreamed of watching detainees dig a grave.... The interrogator said he saw 'a plain, pine casket with Slahi's identification number painted in orange lowered into the ground.' Slahi was repeatedly subjected to the use of an interrogation technique, in the summer of 2003, that the Schmidt-Furlow Report stated had been prohibited by the Secretary of Defense on December 2, 2002. Slahi's lawyers have threatened to sue Jordanian, Mauritanian and US officials over his torture. Habeas corpus proceedings Slahi had habeas corpus petitions submitted on his behalf. In response, the Department of Defense published 27 pages of unclassified documents from his CSRT on July 14, 2005. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 mandated that Guantánamo detainees were no longer entitled access to the US Federal Court system, so all outstanding habeas petitions were stayed. In June 2008, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush that the MCA of 2006 could not remove detainees' right of access to the Federal Courts. All previous habeas petitions were eligible to be re-instated. On July 16, 2008, Sylvia Royce filed a status report on the progress of Slahi's previous petitions.In Re: Guantanamo Bay Detainee Litigation, Misc. No. 08-442 (TFH), Civil Action No. 1:05-0569 (JR), slip op. (D.D.C. July 16, 2008) mirror The report states that Slahi's habeas petition had been dismissed on April 5, 2007 and a motion to reinstate was filed on June 23, 2008. Release order US District Court Judge James Robertson granted the writ of habeas corpus and ordered Slahi's release on March 22, 2010. Robertson's ruling was criticized by several GOP politicians. Slahi was the 34th detainee whose release was ordered by reviewing his habeas petition. The unclassified decision was filed on April 9, 2010. Referring to the government's claim that Slahi gave "purposeful and material support" to al Qaeda, Judge Robertson wrote: :Salahi may very well have been an al-Qaida sympathizer, and the evidence does show that he provided some support to al-Qaida, or to people he knew to be al-Qaida. Such support was sporadic, however, and, at the time of his capture, non-existent. In any event, what the standard approved in Al-Bihani actually covers is "those who purposefully and materially supported such forces in hostilities against U.S. Coalition partners." 530 F.3d at 872 (emphasis added). The evidence in this record cannot possibly be stretched far enough to fit that test. (p. 5) Judge Robertson then addressed the other government claim, that Slahi was "part of" al Qaeda at the time of his capture. He stated the law wasn't as clear in this instance, "neither Al-Bihani nor any other case provides a brightline test for determining who was and who was not 'part of' al-Qaida at the time of capture. The decision, in other words, depends on the sufficiency of the evidence." In regard to Slahi's case, Judge Robertson wrote, "The question of when a detainee must have been a 'part of' al-Qaida to be detainable is at the center of this case, because it is clear that Salahi was at one point a sworn al-Qaida member." (p. 6) Judge Robinson also discusses other factors in his decision, including which side had the burden of proof and the reliability of coerced or hearsay testimony.(pp. 7–12) In conclusion, Judge Robertson stated: :The government had to adduce evidence - which is different from intelligence - showing that it was more likely than not that Salahi was "part of" al-Qaida. To do so, it had to show that the support Salahi undoubtedly did provide from time to time was provided within al-Qaida's command structure. The government has not done so. (p. 31) Appeal The Department of Justice appealed the decision. Oral arguments were heard on September 17, 2010 by a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In oral arguments, Judge David Tatel questioned whether swearing bayat in 1991 is evidence of actions against the United States. "When he swore bayat, the United States and al-Qaida had a common goal. Both the United States and al-Qaida were opposing a communist government of Afghanistan." The panel discussed sending the case back to the District Court or over-ruling the decision based on other recent D.C. Circuit rulings on the criteria that justify detention. On November 5, 2010, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the decision and remanded the case to the D.C. District Court for further factual findings. Appeal for the release of evidence through the Canadian Justice System Mohamedou Slahi and Ahcene Zemiri appealed through the Canadian Justice system for the release of classified documents about these two former Canadian residents. mirror Both men were interviewed by Canadian security officials before leaving Canada for Afghanistan. Their lawyers argued that the notes from the Canadian interviews would have been relied on by the Americans, when building their own dossiers against the two men. They had requested the Canadian evidence in order to make their case for their freedom in the US Justice system. Justice Edmond Blanchard ruled that since the men weren't Canadian citizens, and their connection to Canada was "tenuous", the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms didn't apply to them. Slahi is married to a Canadian, and had once been granted permanent residence status in Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada had ruled that the Canadian government should publish classified documents the Americans had shared about Canadian citizen Omar Khadr. Nathan Whitling, one of their Canadian lawyers, predicted that their American habeas corpus cases will be heard before a planned appeal of Blanchard's ruling. See also *Extraordinary Rendition *Torture References External links * * * * * * * * * Category:1970 births Category:Living people Category:People held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp Category:Mauritanian extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Category:Interrogations Category:People subject to extraordinary rendition by the United States Category:Bagram Theater Internment Facility detainees Category:Mauritanian torture victims ar:محمد ولد صلاحي de:Ould Slahi